One of the biggest stories of late has been the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.  Owing to Professor Gates’ stature in the Harvard community, charge of disorderly conduct against him was dropped:

A prosecutor is dropping a charge against prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. after Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the city’s police department recommended that the matter not be pursued.  In a joint statement, Cambridge and the police department said they made the recommendation to the Middlesex County district attorney and the district attorney’s office “has agreed to enter a nolle prosequi in this matter,” meaning that it will not be pursued.

The city of Cambridge called the arrest “regrettable and unfortunate,” and police and Gates agreed that dropping the charge was a just resolution — though not one that quelled the anger of one of America’s top academics.

The official statement reads:

The City of Cambridge and the Cambridge Police Department have recommended to the Middlesex County District Attorney that the criminal charge against Professor Gates not proceed.  Therefore, in the interests of justice, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office has agreed to enter a nolle prosequi in this matter.  The City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Police Department, and Professor Gates acknowledge that the incident of July 16, 2009 was regrettable and unfortunate.  This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department.  All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances.

What does Gates have to say about all of this?  He made extensive comments through his lawyer on his website, theroot.com, giving Gates’ version of the events:

Statement on Behalf of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. — by Charles Ogletree

…Professor Gates then asked the police officer if he would give him his name and his badge number. He made this request several times. The officer did not produce any identification nor did he respond to Professor Gates’ request for this information. After an additional request by Professor Gates for the officer’s name and badge number, the officer then turned and left the kitchen of Professor Gates’ home without ever acknowledging who he was or if there were charges against Professor Gates…

Quite a different side of the story.  Gates then speaks directly via interview by theroot.com:

I’m outraged. I can’t believe that an individual policeman on the Cambridge police force would treat any African-American male this way, and I am astonished that this happened to me; and more importantly I’m astonished that it could happen to any citizen of the United States, no matter what their race. And I’m deeply resolved to do and say the right things so that this cannot happen again. Of course, it will happen again, but … I want to do what I can so that every police officer will think twice before engaging in this kind of behavior.

…And I love that the 911 report said that two big black men were trying to break in with backpacks on. Now that is the worst racial profiling I’ve ever heard of in my life. (Laughs.) I’m not exactly a big black man. I thought that was hilarious when I found that out…

All of a sudden, there was a policeman on my porch. And I thought, ‘This is strange.’ So I went over to the front porch still holding the phone, and I said ‘Officer, can I help you?’ And he said, ‘Would you step outside onto the porch.’ And the way he said it, I knew he wasn’t canvassing for the police benevolent association. All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I realized that I was in danger. And I said to him no, out of instinct. I said, ‘No, I will not.’…

Now it’s clear that he had a narrative in his head: A black man was inside someone’s house, probably a white person’s house, and this black man had broken and entered, and this black man was me. So he’s looking at my ID, he asked me another question, which I refused to answer… 

A crowd had gathered, and as they were handcuffing me and walking me out to the car, I said, ‘Is this how you treat a black man in America?’…

But really it’s not about me—it’s that anybody black can be treated this way, just arbitrarily arrested out of spite. And the man who arrested me did it out of spite, because he knew I was going to file a report because of his behavior. He didn’t follow proper police procedure! You can’t just presume I’m guilty and arrest me. He’s supposed to ask me if I need help. He just presumed that I was guilty, and he presumed that I was guilty because I was black. There was no doubt about that.

What do you make of the suspicious neighbor who called the police with an erroneous report of “two black men” trying to enter your apartment? Was this neighborhood watch gone wrong?

I don’t know this person, and I’m sure that she thought she was doing the right thing. If I was on Martha’s Vineyard like I am now and someone was trying to break into my house, I would hope that someone called the police and that they would respond.

I’ll be meeting with my legal team, and we will be deciding what kind of legal action I should take. I haven’t made the decision yet. But I am determined that this experience, my experience, as horrendous as it was and as outrageous as it was, be used for the larger good of the black community. There are 1 million black men in the prison system, and on Thursday I became one of them.

There you are, Professor Gates: Sitting in Martha’s Vineyard, telling the tale of how you were arrested for four hours, how your Harvard friends got you out of jail.  Is this what happens to black men in America?  No.  They don’t all sit in Martha’s Vineyard, telling tales of how humiliating it was to be taken from their Cambridge, Mass home because a neighbor called 911 and said that men were breaking into your house, talking of how they will meet with their “legal team.”  

Professor Gates plans to milk his encounter with the police for all its worth:

As a college professor, I want to make this a teaching experience. I am going to devote my considerable resources, intellectual and otherwise, to making sure this doesn’t happen again. I’m thinking about making a documentary film about racial profiling, and I’m in talks with PBS about that.

UPDATE:  The police report of the Henry Louis Gates Jr. incident has been pulled from the internet.  Yesterday, it was on boston.com, but then the link to the police report disappeared.  It was also on the New York Daily News website, but that, too is now gone.  I have not found another copy.  How could such a document go missing? 

UPDATE UPDATE:  A blog from the website “Wicked Local” followed the story of the Henry Louis Gates Jr. police report.  They say the police report was leaked to the press, meaning that the press obtained it illegally.  This explains why it is not available on major internet sites (or anywhere, as far as I can tell).

And a great quote from Gates’ neighbor:

Neighbor Rameau Desmarattes, 45, told the Herald Gates should sue.

“It’s the same profile for black people. He said everybody should know this guy. He’s like the Martin Luther King of our time,” said Desmarattes.

News reports on youtube here and here.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE:  NewsBusters talks about the missing Henry Louis Gates Jr. police report.  They don’t give yout the pdf, but they do give you the verbatim transcript.

Comments are closed